


New Girl

by BritishParty



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: F/M, Yogslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-23
Updated: 2014-11-23
Packaged: 2018-02-26 18:26:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2661980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BritishParty/pseuds/BritishParty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A new girl shows up in Lalna’s school, but he’s not quite sure if she’s actually new.</p>
            </blockquote>





	New Girl

There was a new girl in class.  
Or maybe she wasn’t new. Lalna couldn’t remember anymore. He scarcely saw any faces beyond those of his friends. Besides, it was his junior year. He could be a little more lenient, surely.  
Maybe she was new, though. No one else had seemed to notice her until now.  
Not until she shuffled into class awkwardly, trying to escape all notice under her four-sizes-too-big red sweatshirt and her white skinny jeans. Her black hair was fluffy, pushed back behind her ears in an attempt to keep it out of the way.  
She dropped her books on the empty desk a few seats to Lalna’s left, next to Xephos’ girlfriend Lomadia. The blonde gave the new girl a reassuring smile, pretending that the entire class wasn’t watching them.  
Lalna glanced at Xeph, seated directly on his right, who exchanged a curious look with him.  
“New?” Lalna mouthed the word at him.  
“Think so,” Xephos mouthed back, glancing at her again before shrugging.  
The class, after a moment’s more study of the girl, turned back to face the front of the room, where a late teacher was just setting up.  
But Lalna didn’t lose interest in something that quickly. The class was English, anyway - not that important for someone going into a science branch. He’d seen something far more fascinating on the back of the girl’s neck, and something even better in her eyes.  
The faint scar of a burn mark could barely be seen poking over the collar of her hoodie. Lalna didn’t think anyone else had noticed it. And certainly, no one had noticed the steely glint in her eyes as she’d surveyed the class, observing them indifferently.  
“Nano?” The teacher was looking for her when she jolted up slightly, pushing her hair back as she called out, “Here!”  
Her voice was clear and sweet, not at all matching the venom Lalna had plainly seen in her expression. He was startled to hear her call out so cheerfully; she was clearly scarred from something that had happened.  
He was surprised when she looked around, her gaze locking on his. Shock flashed across her face, followed by a twinge of happiness - and pain? She swallowed with some difficulty, tearing her gaze away to focus again on the board.  
Throughout the lesson, Lalna noticed from the corner of his eye that she stole looks at him. As soon as he turned his head, her eyes would flick back to her paper, copying down the notes Lomadia had lent her to make up for the first month of school she’d missed - apparently she was a transfer student.  
There was something about her that Lalna couldn’t place, something familar. He was startled by the intensity of her gaze, the futive way she studied his classmates.  
Her eyes shot daggers whenever she looked at Sjin, Lalna’s closest friend on the school committe. The way she looked at Sips was cold, too, and the looks the muttering Hat trio in the back recieved could only be called hostile. It was as though she knew all of them, all of Lalna’s friends.  
That said, the way she looked at Lomadia was perfectly friendly. It wasn’t a stranger’s disattached polite smile, nor the smile of a grateful and confused student - it was as though she knew Lomadia, had known her.  
When the class ended, Lalna rose from his seat and headed straight for her, ignoring Xephos’ call as to what their next class was. He helped her gather her textbooks and smiled politely when she thanked him.  
As they joined the throng of teenagers in the hallway, the disattachment she’d feigned dissolved.  
“Lalna,” she said hurriedly, “thank God you’re here. Where are we? And why am I seventeen again?”  
He stared at her, bewildered. She was talking as though she knew him. Their feet slowed to a stop beside the locker she’d been assigned, next to his.  
“Come on,” she urged him, after a moment had passed wih no response. “It’s me, Nano. Nano?” She looked hopefully into his face, looking for a sign he recognized her.  
“Nano?” He blinked in surprise. The name was familiar, but just out of his reach. “Did I know you when we were little?”  
“No, no, no, no!” Her voice rose to an almost hysterical pitch on the last word. “Don’t you remember? Fluxy Nano? Witchy Nano? NanoSounds?”  
“Aren’t you Nano Sounds?” He said confusedly, staring at her.  
“Yes, and that’s the point!” She cried, the hope draining from her face as she watched him. “Please, Lalna, for the love of God…”  
Her face fell as she scanned his eyes, and Lalna noticed that her brown eyes were beginning to water.  
“Wait!” She said desperately, pulling back his sleeve to show his wrist. “See, it is you!” She pointed at the burn marks that circled his wrist, identical in its blurred pattern to the marks on her neck and hands.  
“I got that when I was little,” Lalna informed her curiously. “I’ve had it for as long as I can remember.”  
“No, no, no,” she said, her voice rising again. “You got it from me. It’s the _flux_ , Lalna, don’t you see? It’s what happened to the flux when we got dragged here.”  
“What are you talking about? I live here,” Lalna insisted, wondering what on Earth she was talking about. She seemed too intense to be joking, but that’s most likely all it was.  
“Please, Lalna,” she implored softly, her eyes watering as her grip on his arm slackened. “Please, remember me.”  
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, and he really was. “I don’t know who you are. If it’s any help,” he added, “you do seem familar.”  
She sighed, rubbing at her eyes with the back of her sleeve. “Well,” she said, her tone forcibly light, “that’s better than nothing, then.”  
Realization dawned on Lalna as Nano opened her locker, dumping three books inside. “That’s why you were glaring at people. And why you seemed to nice to Lom.”  
Nano nodded briskly, avoiding Lalna’s eyes. “In whatever that was, Sjin and Sips blew me up. Hat Films and you and I are in the middle of a cold nuclear war. Lom and Nilesy are a magic circle, and good friends of ours. You’re my teacher,” she said weakly. “And my best friend. You were going to save us from the flux, and from Mother.” She swiped at her eyes again, turning away. “But I guess that never existed. Maybe it was a crazy psychic dream I had.”  
Lalna laughed gently. “Whatever it was, it sounds fantastic.” He leaned over her shoulder, looking at the schedule she held in shaking hands. “Looks like you have science next, with me.”  
She laughed too, shakily, as though she might break. “How ironic,” she said. “You were always such a scientist.”  
“How did you know?” Lalna looked at her curiously.  
“You loved science, when I knew you. We mixed science and magic, and, boy, was it strong.”  
Lalna opened his locker, retrieving a heavy textbook. “I’d like to know you,” he said quietly, not looking at her. “Here. Again, as me of this world. If it wouldn’t be too much.”  
Her smile was more than he expected in reponse, and he was clueless when she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him, pressing her face into his chest.  
“Please,” she said in a whisper. “Please, Lalna, just let me stay near you.”  
He cautiously eased out of her grip, giving her an encouraging smile as he closed their lockers. “You sound like you’ll fit in well with my friends, Nano.”  
“Yeah,” she said in a soft giggle. “If I can avoid being too otherwordly, I’ll fit in well with your cast.”  
If Lalna thought anything odd of her wording, he didn’t say anything.  
As he settled down in science with Nano on his right, the entire class gave him odd looks. They’d noticed, then, the protective look in Nano’s eyes - a memoir, perhaps, of another world. Lalna had strategically chosen a place where Nano could sit between himself and Lomadia, putting her in the place he assumed she’d feel most sheltered.  
When Nano got up to write an answer on the board, Lomadia leaned over to Lalna and whispered, “What happened between you and her? Two minutes in the hall and you’re best friends.”  
Lalna smiled sincerely, his green eyes flicking from Lomadia to the back of Nano’s head.  
“We’re friends from a long time ago,” he said. “So are you, but you wouldn’t remember her.”  
Lomadia looked disturbed in the same moment that Lalna felt it; in his mind’s eye, he saw Nano, a jetpack on her back, hovering over a pool of lava in a volcano. The image was gone as soon as it arose, and he locked his gaze onto Lomadia’s unfocused blue eyes.  
“Lom?” He said softly.  
Her gaze snapped back into focus, meeting his eyes unsteadily. “What was that?” She whispered, fear etched deep in her voice. “I saw Nano. But it wasn’t Nano, couldn’t have been… She was hugging a box with legs, and I couldn’t see her face, but it was her.”  
Glancing around the class, Lalna saw Sjin and Honeydew staring at an oblivious Nano with equally stunned expressions.  
 _”Sjin blew me up,”_ Nano had said. _”You were my teacher. Lom was a good friend of ours.”_  
Everyone. Everyone had known her. They were _remembering._ Nano wasn’t crazy. It was real, her fairytale world, even if no one knew it.  
“Don’t tell her,” Lalna said quietly. “And tell Sjin and Honeydew not to say anything, either. She’ll freak out if she knew we had - I don’t know - visions of her in odd places.”  
Lomadia nodded, shooting Honeydew and Sjin meaningful glares to warn them.  
Lalna couldn’t help but hope that somehow, everything would be fine. It was clear now that Nano wasn’t joking - it was real, the world she talked about. The world with all of them in it.  
The teacher called on Lalna to solve some other problem, and he rose from his seat, shaking off the thoughts. He was in science class, and he was Lalna. Not even a girl from another world would get in his way.  
Nano offered him the marker as she headed back to her desk. Their fingers brushed against each other, just barely, as he accepted it with a nod.  
Without warning, he saw Nano go limp. The light in her eyes disappeared as she crumpled to the ground.  
He reached out for her, but his hand refused to move. It was then that he realized he was swaying, too, unsteady on his feet. He felt his legs lose their support as he tilted dangerously, darkness pressing in on his vision.  
His head hit the floor in the same moment that he realized he was blacking out; and then it went dark.  
He woke up in the nurse’s office. Lalna scrabbled at the loose sheets, flinging himself up in the same moment that the person in the bed across from him did.  
“Nano?” He blinked. “What happened?”  
“I don’t know…” Nano shook her head. “I was thinking about - you know, that world - when I passed you the marker, and we blacked out.”  
“Oh!” Her eyes flew wide as she stared at him. “I passed you the marker.”  
He had to suppress a laugh at her surprised face. “And?” He asked.  
“And…” she searched her memory. “What happened between then and when I hugged you?”  
Lalna blinked, thinking of the image he’d seen of her. “I believed you,” he said quietly. “I started believing in your story.”  
Nano stared blankly at him before realization spread across her face. “I’m not crazy!” She crowed triumphantly, pushing back the covers to get up.  
“Then why are we here?” He insisted. “What was that world?”  
She laughed brightly, clearly delighted that it was real. “Home,” she said with a soft, happy sigh.  
Before he could ask what she meant, the nurse came in, alerted by Nano’s shouts. She fussed over them until they were forced to retreat back to the relative safety of science class.  
Curious stares made them shift under the gaze of their classmates. Lalna understood why, though. Synchronized passing out was very unusual, especially with a transfer student no one knew.  
As they escaped science into the confusion of the hallway, Lalna asked about the burn marks he had on his wrists. “You said they were flux,” he said.  
Nano frowned in confusion. “You don’t have them. Ordinary burns from your nukes, maybe, but I was the only one with flux.”  
“No, you said,” he insisted, remembering her words clearly as he pulled back his sleeve to show her the marks on his wrist.  
She studied them for a moment, then met his curious face. “You told me you got those when you were little. That’s what you’ve told me since this morning.”  
“What?” His face went blank, and she laughed fondly at the expression.  
“Come on,” she chirped. “Can’t be late for our next class!”  
He watched her head off down the hallway until she turned around and called to him, grinning broadly as he shook off his daze.  
Lalna sat next to her again, and he interrogated her about the flux. Whatever he asked, she never remembered that she’d told him he’d had it too.  
The day passed like that, Lalna confused when Nano contradicted what she’d said previously. In maths, he asked, “We were at war with the Hats? You said that, right?”  
“Yeah,” she said with a grin. “We’ve got nukes. They’ve got nukes. But we’ve got magic,” she added, her eyes shining. “They’ve even got a nuclear testing ground - poor village - but they haven’t nuked us yet.”  
Later, in their last class, he decided to get more specifics on who the Hats actually were in that world.  
“Well,” she said with a laugh, “Trott’s a walrus, and Smiffy’s a green blobby slime thing in a suit. Ross is an architect. A very odd architect.” A familiar cold, fiery glint entered her eyes. “We’re making nukes to blow them up. And I want to nuke Sjin, too, but you won’t let me.” She pouted, ignoring Lalna’s confused look.  
Lalna wondered if she’d always talked this way, changing her words and crafting different relationships between people until he was no longer sure if she was even telling the truth.  
The next day, she greeted him in the school cafeteria before school had officially started. She hugged him tightly - a more intimate hug than he was expecting - and sat down curled up close to him.  
“We were just talking about the new game you got,” Nano said with a grin. Lalna realized then that she was seated beside his friends, as though she’d always been there.  
“I’m gonna come over to your house after school and play it with you,” Nano was saying. “It’s meant to be played by two people, anyway.”  
“The game or something else?” Sips’ comment shocked Lalna, but everyone - including Nano - just laughed.  
“You could borrow my notes to copy, too,” Lalna suggested as they rose to head to their first class.  
“Why would I need to do that?” Nano gave him a confused look.  
Lalna shrugged. “You just transfered, so I thought you could use the help.”  
“Transfered?” Nano’s giggle wasn’t what he was expecting. She felt his forehead as though looking for a fever. “You okay, Goggles? I’ve lived here my whole life. We’ve been _dating_ for a year, for Christ’s sake.”  
“But - the flux -” he stammered, poking at the hint of a scar under the back of her shirt.  
“Flux?” She laughed. “Lalna, we have burns because we were playing with fire because we were little and dumb.”  
“The other world,” he insisted. “That was _real._ And we even blacked out in perfect sync!”  
She laughed again. “Our lovely act. I remember pulling that prank last year. We were out for exactly an hour before waking up at the same time.”  
“Nuking Hat Films?” He scanned her face hopelessly. “Poppets? Magic Police? Duplicate mes?”  
“Lalna, the joke’s old,” she said, no longer humoring what honestly sounded like a bad joke.  
“Okay,” he said steadingly. “Okay. That didn’t happen. We’re dating. Okay. I can adjust.”  
“Adjust?” She laughed again at how lost he looked. “I should hope so. It’s been a year.”  
Lalna spent the rest of his life wondering if he was crazy, or if his girlfriend was from another world.


End file.
